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Study Confirms That Taking MDMA or Ecstasy Directly Increases Your Stress Levels

So it turns out that, despite initially serving the complete opposite purpose, MDMA and ecstasy use in fact increase your stress levels long term. A study conducted by the Swinburne University of Technology used hair samples to measure the amount of cortisol — a stress hormone — in the hair of sixty-one participants. The groups tested were either heavy users, light users or a control group who never took MDMA, and their stress hormones were recorded over the course of three months.

Perhaps worryingly for anyone who is living it large every weekend, the results were pretty straightforward — the more MDMA or ecstasy, the higher the stress levels. The cortisol levels of the light users were 50% higher than the control group, and the heavy users were experiencing four times as much stress.

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Maybe this isn’t such shocking news, bigger weekends mean bigger comedowns which surely impacts on how effective the rest of your week is, and in turn how much it stresses you out. Then there’s the added stress of knowing that you probably cornered your little brother’s best mate’s cousin for an hour and a half in the smoking area to tell them how much you admire them.

Naturally you take the highs with the lows, but this is pretty concrete evidence that an eccy every weekend is actually probably doing more harm than you’d maybe like to admit. Maybe time to start clubbing sober, or better still get into yoga. Whatever you do, don’t take a chill pill.

News via AJP online.